Tuesday Briefing: Remembering Jimmy Carter
Good morning. We’re covering the death of former President Jimmy Carter and the ongoing investigation into a plane crash in South Korea. Plus, looking back at 2024.
Remembering Jimmy CarterJimmy Carter, who rose from a peanut farm to become the 39th U.S. president, died on Sunday at his home in Georgia. He was 100. While his presidency is remembered more for its failures than for its successes, his tenure nevertheless included notable achievements, particularly in foreign affairs. His human rights policies set a new standard for how the U.S. should deal with abusive governments. The peace treaty he brokered between Israel and Egypt still holds decades later. And he signed a strategic arms limitation agreement with the Soviet Union and formalized diplomatic relations with China. Read Peter Baker’s full obituary here. In his farewell address to the nation when leaving office in 1981, Carter told Americans that he planned to “take up once more the only title in our democracy superior to that of president — the title of citizen.” Under that mantle, he left a lasting imprint overseas, particularly in public health. One of his biggest accomplishments is also one of his most overlooked: the near total eradication of Guinea worm disease, a painful parasitic infection for which there is no treatment or vaccine. In 1986, it afflicted an estimated 3.5 million people, mostly in Africa and Asia. More on Carter:
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